OSHA Standards for Maritime Employers
OSHA includes standards and laws for nautical employers regarding shipyard employment, marine terminals and longshoring. Employers are required to provide a safe workplace environment, protecting employees from any type of injury that would cause illness or injury. For case, employers must tell employees about any potential hazards. They should besides provide them with proper education to work with these hazards .
Although OSHA sometimes will come in unannounced to inspect for hazards or violations of laws for maritime employers, the majority of the time they deal with complaints from employees. Employers need to know that if an employee does complain about the solve environment, they have a duty to correct it .
For exemplify, if it ’ s bring to the employer ’ s attention that a stairwell or a rail is broken, it must be repaired. If an employee notices an odd olfactory property, it must be investigated to make sure it ’ s not a toxic fume. Or if some patch of equipment appears to be broken, it must be inspected and fixed .
OSHA & Inspected Vessels
A Memorandum of Understanding ( MOU ) between OSHA and USCG establishes that while the OSH Act can not be enforced regarding working conditions on inspect vessels, the agency may retain assurance regarding discrimination against employees who exercise rights under the Act. Whether a vessel is considered discipline to inspection may depend on the type of vessel, its size, its occupation and other factors.
Read more: Maritime search and rescue – Documentary
By law, maritime employers and vessel owners are required to post notices to employees regarding the right to file a complaint about working conditions with OSHA, USCG or the employer without fear of retaliation. Complaints received by OSHA regarding visit vessels may be referred to the USCG .
Steps a Maritime Employee Should Take When Injured
The first gear dance step is to seek aesculapian attention. failure to seek hand brake medical attention right after the accident may be used to demonstrate the employee is not adenine hurt as he or she claims .
once the injury has been addressed, the employer needs to be told about the hazardous condition and what happened. This is specially significant because it could result in person else getting injured until it ’ sulfur fixed.
Read more: Maritime search and rescue – Documentary
If employer negligence was the campaign of the accident, the employee should look into filing a Jones Act claim. If it wasn ’ t the employer ’ sulfur defect, maintenance and remedy benefits distillery should be available as the mariner recovers .
Another mistreat that needs to be taken is contacting OSHA if the employer retaliates after filing a title. It besides may be to a worker ’ s profit to contact a lawyer. A Louisiana nautical lawyer at The Young firm can assist with the complexities of an injury case stemming from a maritime accident. We not entirely can help protect an hurt worker ’ s rights, but we besides can determine if there was a irreverence of law regarding maritime employer responsibilities .
More Resources on OSHA Regulations:
